• BioSphere Medical (Rockland, Massachusetts), a pioneer in the use of bioengineered microspheres in embolization procedures, reported that the FDA has cleared the BioSphere Medical Sequitor Steerable Guidewire Premarket Notification 510(k). Sequitor is expected to begin shipping in the U.S. next month. BioSphere said it also expects to complete the CE marking of Sequitor and to launch it in Europe in July. Sequitor facilitates the placement of catheters within the peripheral vasculature for various interventional procedures, including both uterine fibroid embolization and embolization of hypervascularized tumors. Sequitor can be used with the company's existing products, including the EmboCath infusion catheter, and has also been designed for use with the new EmboCath Plus infusion catheter, under development.

• Cogon Systems (Pensacola, Florida), a clinical data integration company, reported that it has developed enhanced tools to automate medication reconciliation, and has integrated these tools into its Moment of Care Information System. The Moment of Care information System is a clinical technology solution that enables healthcare professionals to access, analyze and transmit clinical data from anywhere at anytime.

• invivodata (Pittsburgh), a provider of electronic patient reported outcomes (ePRO) solutions for global clinical research, and Viasys Healthcare (Conshohocken, Pennsylvania), a provider of hardware and software technology and service solutions, reported the first integration of data from Viasys' Jaeger Asthma Monitor AM1+ peak expiratory flow (PEF) meter with DiaryPRO, invivodata's hand-held electronic patient diary (eDiary) in a global clinical trial. invivodata's integrated solution will enable adults with asthma to accurately transfer critical PEF data between the Asthma Monitor AM1+ and DiaryPRO TX device using Bluetooth technology. Step-by-step guidance provided by DiaryPRO allows patients to wirelessly transfer data from the electronic PEF meter to DiaryPRO after each reading. The data will then be uploaded daily to invivodata's Webportal, where clinical trial sponsors and researchers have immediate access to it.

• Medrad (Indianola, Pennsylvania) received FDA clearance for use of its Continuum MR infusion system in magnetic resonance (MR) environments up to and including 3.0 Tesla (T). The clearance enables clinicians working in the latest 3.0T environments to infuse medications, sedatives, and other drugs while benefiting from Continuum's ease-of-use and dose enhancements. In the most recent enhancement to Continuum, introduced in 2002 as the first MR compatible infusion system, Medrad added a greater selection of drug-specific units of measurement, increasing the number of drugs that can be infused. It also helps prevent programming errors by reducing the confusion of manual conversions.